It’s World Cup season and the Beautiful Game is everywhere. If you’re a sports fan, that is great news. If you’re not, it does seem to have been going on forever and it’s only just started.

The World Cup is all about winning – and preferably winning big. But is that the best model for us as musicians? Probably not. We aren’t trying to beat everyone in the world – we only need to be a little better than we were yesterday.

But when a win is big – it is very clear. There’s no missing it. It is loud and proud. But the types of wins we need – small, incremental steps from where we were to where we’re going – are much more challenging to spot.

These small spurts of growth are precisely what we need to watch for. They occur in snippets of practice time. They occur in your sleep when your brain finally puts the pieces together. And they’re most obvious in that moment that the tune, or phrase, or shape that has been fighting you finally succumbs!

You will find these moments more easily if you’re watching for it! So, pay attention. Do your accounting and capture these moments. Savor the moments. Pat yourself on the back (no, literally). And capture both the event and the feeling. Keep a pad of small slips of paper or yellow stickies near by and put them on the wall or in a journal book higgledy-piggledy. You can procure a trophy and use it to stick your notes to. Or get a big jar and put the slips in there. On each sticky write down what you did, when, and how you feel. I’m thinking words like delighted, shocked, chuffed, pleased-as-punch. Whatever the words, put them on the sticky. Just do it.

Later, when you’re inordinately pleased with yourself you can pull them out and bask in your progress. Or when you’re feeling glum that you’re stuck in a plateau, you can pull them out and re-enjoy your journey and realize that you’re not stuck, you’re just marinating.

Take the win. It might be small but if you’re paying attention, the World Cup is actually a compilation of small wins concatenated to make a trophy. You’ve got this!  YAY – You win!

How will you capture your wins? Let me know – I’m always looking for good ideas!